The hairs of your head are all numbered: Symbolisms of hair and dreadlocks in the Boboshanti order of Rastafari

Abstract

This article’s readings of Rastafari philosophy and culture through the optic of the Boboshanti (a Rastafari group) in relation to their hair – dreadlocks – tease out the symbolic representations of dreadlocks as connecting social communication, identity, subliminal protest and general resistance to oppression and racial discrimination, particularly among the Black race. By exploring hair symbolisms in connection with dreadlocks and how they shape an Afrocentric philosophical thought and movement for the Boboshanti, the article argues that hair can be historicised and theorised to elucidate the link between the physical and social bodies within the contexts of ideology and identity